WOMENS KNOWLEDGE OF EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION

Background. More widespread use of emergency contraception could help to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies. Aim. The objective of th is study was to assess women's knowledge of emergency contraception. M ethod A questionnaire was distributed to 1290 women aged between 16 an d 50 years attending 14 general practice surgeries in London over a tw o-week period in 1990. Results. The response rate was 70%. Over three quarters of the women had heard of emergency contraception; these were mainly women who used contraception, who had higher educational quali fications or who were not Muslim. Women who were the most likely to ne ed and to use emergency contraception - those using barrier methods - had no more accurate knowledge than women using any other method of co ntraception. Only 53% of barrier method users knew emergency contracep tion could be used as a backup when other methods failed. Only one fif th of women had heard about this method from their general practitione r or any other health professional, while half had obtained their info rmation from the media. Conclusion. These results suggest that includi ng information on emergency contraception in consultations with users of barrier methods of contraception is a small step which general prac titioners and practice nurses could take to increase the use of emerge ncy contraception.